What kinds of things will my child learn? Parents seeking a religious education program are often looking for a community of shared values in which to raise their children. These values are the most important things we teach, but we also give children building blocks with which to form their own beliefs. Most congregations offer a balanced program including Unitarian Universalist identity, Jewish and Christian heritage, other world religions, and social action/justice.

How can you teach without doctrine? The notable nineteenth-century Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing wrote, “The great end of religious instruction is not to stamp our minds irresistibly upon the young but to stir up their own . . . to touch inward springs.” We have a strong faith in the inherent spirituality of children and see it as our task to nurture, not to indoctrinate. Our respect for the children teaches them respect—for themselves, for others, and for this fragile interdependent web of which we are all a part.

What will my child learn about big religious questions? They will learn that all big questions have many answers, and that it is their duty to search responsibly for their own answers. But we also give children a foundation on which to build their own values. You can expect your child to learn that • there are as many ideas about God as there are people; • we hold Jesus in the tradition of the great prophets and teachers, and we learn from the example of his life; • death is a mystery that is inseparable from life, and the only immortality we can know for sure is that which lives on in the hearts and minds of those whose lives we touch; therefore, how we lead our lives each day is of the utmost importance.